Publications and Presentations Announcement by Ruth Lijtmaer (USA)

Publications

Can We Imagine a World without Walls?

(2023, March1). Journal of the Association for Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society [online journal].

This paper is a tale of two immigrants, an analyst and a patient, whose treatment was truncated when the patient left after ten sessions. The contrast between different migration experiences and a shared language provided the grounds for an intense therapeutic experience exacerbated by peace demonstrations and changes in immigration policies in the US. Mourning the loss of the patient was an important piece in the transformation and understanding of the analyst’s own unresolved issues.

The Absence of Women in Classical Music

(2023). Clio’s Psyche, 29(3): 348-351.

This essay examines a particular field, classical music, where gender stereotyping and discrimination have reigned for centuries. Currently, classical music, in different cultures, is still a man’s world, though in most recent times there has been some positive movement. Still, this artistic practice has lagged behind other artistic areas where women are better represented; this is a powerful place of gender discrimination. This project is my attempt to understand the disparity of women’s representation in conducting and composing classical music as compared to men.

No Apologies: Unfinished Business and the Pact to Forget

(2023). “Other/Wise: Selected Papers from the 2022 IFPE Conference, ‘Disruptions and Transformations,’” Other/Wise [online journal], International Forum for Psychoanalytic Education, Spring (1).

This presentation discusses the film The Silence of Others (2019), which reveals the epic struggle of victims of Spain’s 40-year dictatorship under General Franco, who continue to this day to seek justice. Filmed over six years, the movie follows survivors as they organize a groundbreaking fight against a state-imposed amnesia of crimes against humanity.

Presentations

How Human are We? Reflections on Malevolence and Paranoid Fantasies

(2023). Division 39, American Psychological Association, Annual Conference, April 26 – 29, New York, NY.

In a panel entitled, “Where is our Humanity: Three Latina Women Psychoanalysts Discuss Dehumanization, Gender and Immigration,” one presenter from the United States (Lijtmaer) addressed how dehumanization takes place; a second presenter, a “trans-border” therapist living on the border of Mexico and the US (Tijuana–San Diego), discussed dehumanization of migrant women; and a third presenter from Mexico City addressed gender violence.

Evil Spirits and the Feared “Other”

(2023). International Psychohistory Association, May 18 – 20, New York, NY and online.

For a conference on the theme of “What on earth is going on? Psychohistorical perspectives on a world on the edge,” Lijtmaer showed how poisonous prejudice and hate against race, class, religion, ethnic minorities, or gender are often skillfully hidden behind deception and lies. Is evil simply the absence of good, or is it more an active pursuit of wrongdoing? Why is the “other” so dangerous? Dialogue and the recognition of the “other” as a human being are an emergency, now that populations in the world are polarized due to the pandemic, climate change, politics and war.

Immigrants as Viruses that “Destroy” the Countries and are Dehumanized

(2023). Joint International Conference, May 26 – 28, Naxos, Greece.

In this presentation, Lijtmaer reflected on the connection between the appearance and effects of the virus and the lives of immigrants. The pandemic crisis was/is a crisis of the symbolic order, invoking psychoanalytic work regarding imaginary objects. We cannot see it but we know it is there. Some people know that there are immigrants even though they cannot see them directly. If they do see them, dehumanization occurs: They are the virus, the vermin, or the parasite who will ruin the country and its resources.

Fear of the Virus and Fear of Immigrants: Both Unwelcome Children to be Removed

(2023). International Ferenczi Conference, June 9 – 11, Budapest, Hungary.

When a nation feels threatened by the virus or immigrants, they create walls to protect the susceptible citizens against sexual assault, crimes, and to eliminate the danger of parasites draining the nation’s resources. The experience of one’s nation having fragile boundaries, is psychologically equivalent to the fear that one’s own body is being penetrated. Lijtmaer drew on Ferenczi’s work on trauma, confusion of tongues and the unwelcome child to explain the trauma of immigrants.

Ruth Lijtmaer, Ph.D.
Ridgewood, New Jersey, USA
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